Tuesday, March 26, 2013

PLUS SIZE OPINION: CAN WE STILL TRUST (THE PHOTOS INSIDE) MAGAZINES FOR THE REALITY OF BEAUTY?

PHOTO FROM: THEILLUSIONISTS.ORG

This photo is going around Facebook. It's actually from the Facebook page "The Illusionist". It basically shows the celebrity, Jennifer Lawrence, an actress of strong athletic physique, being "slimmed down" or rather "shrunk down" a size or three. Before the plus size community or any body acceptance promoter raise their eyebrows to GQ and start clamoring for reforms, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT GQ ACTUALLY CHOSE THE LEFT PHOTO for publishing.

So please, CALM DOWN. GQ deserves a round of applause for many ages to come. This photo is also almost 2 years of age, so the issue has practically been brought up already but it just reached me yesterday.

In the magazine world, it's already a widespread fact that PHOTOSHOP is always used in these forms of media. One way or another, we are sure that this program has been used in any or almost all photos shown in the newsstands (digitally or the old school paper stands). So the question is, can we still trust magazines with regards to the reality of beauty?

This topic, of course, has been ran over and over again. In fact, there has been a clamor from various groups to "tone it down". Unfortunately, it can't be helped. Magazines use it because majority of their readers actually/secretly gets attracted to it more. People who do buy these magazines, get attracted because the magazine, over the years, has been the voice they have been listening to for years and they trust them with regards to beauty/fashion/style. So, this conundrum is a definite chicken and egg style.

But with the appearance of this kind of evidence, GQ finally making a great choice of actually just showcasing the photo as is because, let's face it, Jennifer Lawrence, is already beautiful as is, can there still be hope that we can still trust magazines for their point of view about beauty?

Personally, I think that we should just think of these magazines as art or hyper reality. Even if the photo is not photoshopped, we should take it upon ourselves to STOP COMPARING ourselves to these photos. We will never be these people. We can only be ourselves. We can't immediately stop these magazines from using these kinds of photos, but we can immediately stop ourselves from believing that these photos should be who we are.

We can only be one beautiful person and the REALITY of beauty is that, that person is not found on the pages of that magazine, but in the acceptance of the body that is holding it.

What do you think, Erzulliestas? CAN WE STILL TRUST (THE PHOTOS INSIDE) MAGAZINES FOR THE REALITY OF BEAUTY? COMMENT HERE.